With My Swag All on My Shoulder: Bacharach to Colmar (Germany to France)

Brekky was at 6.30am this morning as we had to catch a train at 7.30am. Mmngf. Which insomniac booked such early trains?? And in the rain! It was a real transport mishmash, involving lots of Phil's least favourite activity - train hopping. An hour from Bacharach to Mainz, wait 15 minutes, 45 minutes from Mainz to Mannheim, wait 15 minutes - woops - train is 20 minutes late, so wait 35 minutes. 15 minutes from Mannheim to Karlsruhe (on a high speed train), wait 40 minutes, 40 minutes from Karlsruhe to Appenweier, change platforms - this was the weirdest station any of us have come across. Unmanned, tracks 1-4 are in a normal parallel pattern. Our train left from platform 9, which was perhaps 300 metres away through rural countryside (or so it seemed). Look at this sign - left arrow points to tracks 1-4, right arrow points to track 9.

Wait there in a minimalist bus shelter (in the rain) for 40 minutes, 25 minutes from Appenwieier to Strasbourg. Pheasant count (Appenweier to Strasbourg): 6. No pheasants on any other leg of today's journey. Yeah - go figure. The plan was to dump our cases in a locker in Strasbourg and have a quick look around. Cases safely disposed of, we caught a tram to the Cathedrale de Notre Dame. It's pink. It's a really nice pink. Doesn't show it properly in the photos, though.

Inside it had some lovely stained glass windows (which never photograph well), and some other nice bits and pieces. The organ was interesting - lots of gilt, and in an unusual spot on the side of the main aisle.

There is also an astronomical clock which does some cool things each quarter hour (not unlike the one at Melbourne Central, but without musical accompaniment).

We wanted to go on a boat ride around the old city, but the next departure was too far off, so we headed back to the tram stop and stumbled across the Tourist Train. Next departure in 15 minutes - enough time for a ride on the carousel. Caelli is on the black horse on the upper deck, just above me.

Notice the carousel in this shot (ignore all the raindrops on the window).

Some pretty areas in Strasbourg.

Back to the station, quick ticket purchase (Caelli) and luggage retrieval (Phil and I) and we all managed to meet on the correct platform. (I had to ask a station chap in French because Colmar wasn't coming up on the departure board. I understood his answer until he tried to give me too much information!) Final train for the day (our sixth) - 30 minutes from Strasbourg to Colmar. This one went pretty fast, too! It wasn't raining in Colmar when we got there, but...

We caught a bus to our accommodation here. It's an apartment with a kitchen and bathroom, and Caelli gets an actual bed this time, not a fold-out sofa-bed. It's a lovely big room which also contains a sofa, a table and three chairs and a wardrobe.

Once again we are on the top floor, but there's only two floors here! Views of our balcony and from our balcony.

A quick trip to the supermarket to buy stuff to cook for tea, and then cook and eat (also, several cups of tea which we can make at will right now! Much appreciated after a week without a kettle.) After this, Phil and I went walking. Colmar is a really pretty town. I love it!

The Cathedrale de St Martin is also nice. This one is yellow! It has a colourfully tiled roof. The later shots were taken when the late afternoon sun shone on it (yes, we actually got some sun after rain AALLLL day).